


under the sun

by orphan_account



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Bromance, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-15
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk's always had a fascination with the stories of brothers-in-arms. One of his own is really kind of awesome. Sulu doesn't get it, but that's okay. He doesn't need to get it for them to be bros.</p>
            </blockquote>





	under the sun

**Author's Note:**

> written for my darling [](http://eppy.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**eppy**](http://eppy.dreamwidth.org/) who said "write about jim and sulu being bros." so i did!

History is full of stories of all different kinds. The books tend to favor the ones about heroes and heroines, fighting for some righteous cause and either dying nobly or emerging from battle victorious; both are applauded for their bravery and skill. Equally favored, but much more hard to find, are the stories about the ‘bromances,’ as Sam put it. The ones about the brothers in arms who were fiercely loyal to each other, never gave up on each other and were always there for each other. Those were the ones Jim had liked best growing up. Not that there was any part of history that he    
_didn’t_   
 find interesting.

( “You’ve got some kind of history fetish,” Sam says one day as he throws himself onto the end of the couch opposite Jim.

“I don’t have a history fetish!” Jim protests. He’s eleven, has been grounded for a month for crashing his father’s car and has absolutely no idea what a fetish is. He’ll look it up later. 

“Sure you do. Historiaphile.” Sam chuckles and looks haughty like most fourteen year olds are. He’s king of the world, or as much as he can be since he got dragged back home from his second runaway attempt. 

He eyes the reader in Jim’s hands and smiles at his little brother softly. “You reading another one of your bromance novels?”

“They’re not novels, idiot. Novels are fiction, this actually happened,” Jim says snidely. He goes back to reading, but doesn’t get more than a paragraph in before he needs to look back up at Sam. “Hey, Sam… We’re brothers like these guys are, right? You’ll be with me no matter what, right?”

Sam smiles widely and gets up off the couch, ruffling Jim’s hair as he walks past. “Sure, Jimmy.”

They both know it’s a lie.

Sam runs away for good a year and a half later. Jim loves him anyways. )

Jim’s always known, intellectually, there’s something about going into battle with another person that bonds you together like nothing else. There’s no real way to pin down exactly what it is about life-or-death fights that leaves people so close, and he spends most of his teen and early adult life wondering what, exactly, having a bond like that would be like.

After everything with Nero and the Narada, he knows exactly what it feels like. He knows what it’s like to watch a man he works with, knows at least peripherally and was connected to in some small way die in front of him. He knows what it is to have another sentient being lose their life because of his phaser fire. He knows the cold grip of panic around his gut and the warm, hard pressure of a hand against his throat. Boy, does he ever know that last one.

And he finally gets the connection between two brothers in arms. It’s that connection that really sparked a friendly relationship between himself and Spock. As time goes on, the two grow closer and closer and it would be a lie to say that Spock isn’t one of Jim’s best friends.

Sulu, though, is the one Jim feels the strongest bromantic connection to. It's quite a bit different from the way he feels connected to Spock or Bones or anyone else on the ship. It’s probably because they had been the only two fighting on that drill. Or maybe it’s because Sulu saved his life. In any case, the two of them end up closer than Jim ever thought they'd get.

They start a tradition of meeting up in Jim’s quarters or office every other Friday night when they’re not on duty and drink together. It starts off as a, “Holy shit, we’re alive, let’s drink to Olson who didn’t make it,” sort of a thing and evolves into them shooting the shit together. Eventually that turns into talking about themselves. Jim’s not at all surprised to learn that Sulu’s got a pretty big family back in San Francisco. There’s just something about him that always struck Jim as leftovers from Middle Child Syndrome.

Jim doesn’t like to talk about himself, so he keeps his contributions short and sparse until Sulu lets out a rather loud, “Your step-dad is a douchebag,” one Friday when they’re on leave on some colony somewhere. The patrons of the bar in their immediate vicinity pause and look over at them before giving them the stink-eye. 

Jim laughs so hard he cries at their reactions. It’s about then that they decide they’re way too pissed to be drinking anymore and with a cry of, “Scotty, beam me up!” they drunkenly stumble back onto the ship.

( Scotty was in the same bar they were, sitting in a different corner. He never tells them that, though. )

It’s not until a little over two years into their five year mission that Jim realizes just how close he and Sulu have gotten. 

Jim’s gotten himself into trouble yet again. On yet another away mission gone wrong. He’s beginning to wonder if it would just be better for everyone involved if away missions were always done by the seat of their pants. Maybe then he wouldn’t end up beaten all to hell and chained in some megalomaniacal weirdo's dungeon. Again.

He can feel the sticky warmth of blood on his temple, slipping down his face to drip from his chin onto the stone floor. His thoughts are all muddled and cloudy, and the fact that it’s hard to see in the dim torchlight doesn’t really help matters. And who the hell still uses torches lit with actual fire anyways?

There's a commotion outside the jail and when it actually registers, Jim looks up just in time to see Sulu kick in the heavy wood door and use his flippy katana to slice through the rusted lock on the door of his cell. 

“Sulu?” Jim slurs, “Th’ hell are you doing here? You weren’t on this -”    
_Schwing_   
 goes the sword and off go the chains. “- this mission. Roster. … Thing.”

Sulu smirks -    
_smirks_   
 - as he hoists Jim’s arm over his shoulder and steers them out of the dungeon. “I know. I came anyways.” They stumble into daylight and into the   
_Enterprise_   
’s transporter range. There’s no more time to talk then, what with Bones yelling and Jim having to get jabbed fifty million times. 

( It’s really only three times. Once to administer a drug, another from the epipen to ward off anaphylactic shock from Jim’s numerous allergies, and one from the    
_right_   
 drug that wouldn’t cause the good captain to die from the thing that was supposed to save his life. )

Later, when Jim’s resting in sickbay and is more than a little high on the good stuff, Sulu comes to visit and check up on the injured captain. Jim smiles, waves and chirps off something that doesn’t really make a lick of sense but makes the pilot smile anyways. The conversation they have is mostly nonsensical and the part of it that is coherent they never mention again. Sulu assumes Jim doesn’t remember. Jim treasures the memory always. 

( “Why’d you do it?” Jim asks.

“Do what?” Sulu counters as he flops down in a chair by Jim’s bed. 

“Come after me yourself,” is the answer. Jim’s eyes are still glassy but there’s a seriousness in his expression that makes Sulu pause.

He shrugs slightly and looks away. “Because it would’ve been wrong to leave you there. I’ve said before that I’d be there if you needed someone to get you out of trouble. I wouldn't go back on that.”

Jim blinks and his brow knits. For a second, Sulu wonders if he’s about to pass out the way Dr. McCoy said he would at some point, but instead there’s something sad about his expression. “Always? No matter what?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sulu replies, confused by the turn the conversation has taken. When the look on Jim’s face doesn’t go away immediately he continues. “Really. I mean it.” And he does.

The sad expression gives way to a loopy smile and Jim points at Sulu. “You,” he says, “You an’ me. We’re bros. We’ve got a bromance thing goin’ on like they do in all the history books.” He looks so thrilled with this that Sulu can’t help but smile and laugh with Jim. 

A few seconds later, Jim drifts off and Sulu’s smile softens. He reaches out and rearranges the blankets around his captain before gently patting him on the shoulder. “Sleep well, Kirk. I got your back.” )


End file.
